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Over 300 Flash games from one Android app; new games to be added; GameStop to promote at retail

Broswer games portal Kongregate has launched what it claims is the largest ever collection of free games for Google’s Android mobile platform

The GameStop-owned company said ‘Kongregate Arcade’ will feature over 300 free games based on Abobe Flash technology, resplendent with achievements, profiles and “a robust navigation layer to create the most complete gaming experience on Android”.

All the Flash games will be available through a single Android app.

GameStop will also throw its weight behind the virtual portal, promoting it within its 4,600 US-based outlets.

“Given that Android OS is the fastest growing smartphone operating system, making a move into the Android Marketplace is the next logical step for the rapidly growing Kongregate” read a statement from the group.Article continues below

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The portal’s CEO Jim Greer said one of Kongregate Arcade’s benefits is how it will “solve the game discovery problem that all Android owners have shared”.

“It was important to reinforce our mission to provide gamers with great free games anytime, anywhere, and to broaden the reach of the Kongregate community across multiple platforms,” he said.

“The arrival of Kongregate Arcade is the perfect next step in that strategy.”

New titles will be added to the Kongregate Arcade App each week.

Uptake of new titles will be vetted on mobile device compatibility and usability on a touch-screen device.

Kongregate said it is “actively looking to identify opportunities to work with its community of more than 8,500 developers, to create new Flash based game content exclusively for the Kongregate Arcade library”.

Kongregate Arcade will be available on any device running Android 2.2 with Flash 10.1 upwards.

Company confirms web browser plug-in to cease on mobile from August 15th

Adobe had called time on its Flash web
player for Android and will cease to update it from August 15th, the
company has announced.

The web player will now no longer be
certified to run on mobiles operating on Android 4.1, and access through
the Google Play Store will limit continued access to Flash player
updates.

The company also said that
devices that do not have Flash Player installed are increasingly likely
to be imcompatible with the platform, and users will not be able to
install if from Google Play Store after August 15th.

Adobe first
shocked mobile developers in November last year by revealing that it
would cease support for its Flash web player in the next major version
of Android, 5.0, with its final Flash update occurring last December.

“For
the foreseeable future, Flash offers advantages in delivering premium
video with content protection, as well as providing a high performance,
feature-rich and graphically advanced gaming platform,” the company
stated.

“We are focusing our Flash Player efforts around these areas."

The
discontinuation will likely result in the increased adoption of the
controversial HTML5 platform, which has suffered criticism from
developers for being tough to code and possessing a string of broken
features.

Adobe pressured by 'strategic partners' to make browser plug-in available again on Android

Adobe’s Flash player has returned to the Google App Store despite having been pulled from Android devices just two weeks ago.

As reported by the BBC,
the company said that a number of “strategic partners” in the UK had
pressured the it into bringing its web browser plug-in back online.

Adobe
had previously planned to end work on Flash for Android, and said it
would no longer be certified to run on mobiles operating on Android 4.1,
and that access through the Google Play Store would be limited.

However,
partners such as media giant BBC have convinced the firm to bring it
back, but only for the short-term. The UK broadcaster suggested that it
needed time to shift to new technology as the plug-in was crucial to its
iPlayer service.

"Flash Player continues to be available on
Google Play for users in the UK for a short while due to requests from
strategic partners," said an Adobe spokesperson.

Adobe still has no intentions to update the browser plug-in despite its return.

The
discontinuation will likely result in the increased adoption of the
controversial HTML5 platform, despite bearing the brunt of much
criticism from developers claiming it carries a string of broken
features.

The hotly debated and controversial HTML5 platform for browser is the future of gaming, claims Gavin Shields.

Speaking
at the Develop in Brighton conference, the Turbulenz COO said that
creating games for console had become too risky for many developers,
whilst discoverability was a huge problem for developers on the App
Store.

He added that the HTML5
platform had overcome many of its previous issues, such as the size of
its potential userbase, which he cited as 1.3 billion, whilst it was
also cheaper for developers to create content for compared to large
triple-A console titles.

"I know many of you will have an
overriding issue with all I’ve just said," said Shields, in reference to
his positivity surrounding web platform.

"I know the name HTML5
invokes much cynicism but I have no doubt that it is the future. Since
Google enabled Webgl by default in its browser last year, approximately
1.3bn have access to browsers that can play modern games in Javascript
HTML5.

"The argument that there isn’t a big enough user base for HTML5 is irrelevant. You’re no longer at the mercy of one business."

He added: "Day by day my colleagues and I become more convinced that it is the future."